settling into my first week @ monwel.

cardiff city centre.

so here ends my first week in wales -- my three-day (...or, well, two and a half, if we’re interested in being precise about it) work week. i’m settling into it already, i think!

my schedule goes more or less like this:

• 6:45am: hit the road, try not to get distracted by all the sheep i’m driving past

• 7:30am: realize i’m lost and almost accidentally drove all the way up the mountain, turn around

• 7:45am: get to work, say hi to all of the unbelievably friendly people also coming in, start doing work things

• 10:00am: bell rings for (smoke) break... and here i thought i might maybe quit this summer, since i can’t find any of my brands here >:(

• 12:30pm: lunch bell! everyone from the office and the manufacturing line all eat together :)

• 1:00pm: back to work!

• 2:30pm: second break, aka another reason for me to go outside and hang out with the sweetest old “codgers” (not my word)

• 4:30pm: home time, try not to get distracted by all the mountains and cliffs and grass and scenery

as for what it is that i’m actually doing at work, oh man. i’m so excited. where do i start?

the first thing, the thing that runs through my head at least three times a day, is how unbelievably warm this entire place is. not just in terms of temperature (doesn’t feel like a heat wave to me, but i’ve been assured it is! i hope others in the UK can manage to get to a cooling centre and stay hydrated, though), but in terms of personality. i’ve never felt so immediately at ease at a work place before, just because of how welcoming and funny and genuine everybody here is.

to wit:

during the break today someone asked, “so how are you finding wales so far?” and i answered, “well, i still don’t know much y--”

and somehow that managed to embroil the entire office into talking about everything from rugby, to st. david’s day, to dragons, to the welsh language, to town names and locations.

five minutes after the (very long, very extensive) conversation came to a natural end, one of my co-workers, alan, re-entered the office and handed me that red duo-tang with four different printouts about the history of cymru and the dragon: “i did some research for you! and you can keep this folder, it’s very welsh. it’s welsh because it’s red.”

literally everyone here is that sweet. another example: my mentor, barry. he’s in charge of creative design and marketing/re-branding here, and i’m working with him right now conceptualizing a new logo. he’s been super wonderful -- as has everyone else, like the managing director, leslie, and the finance manager, lucy. they’re all genuinely interested in me learning transferable skills, and doing meaningful work, and understanding everything; from all the parts of the business, to how to not get into a terrible accident while trying to drive through a roundabout.

right now is an exciting time for monwel, and without delving too deeply into it (...hopefully, anyway, brevity was never my strong suit), over the next two months monwel is looking to really grow and expand in a tangible way. i’m really excited to be here to be able to see all of it! and i’m just, always, so grateful that everyone here actually wants me to be able to be part of it.

the history of the area is long and eventful, but if i boil it down: in the town where monwel is located, ebbw vale, the steelworks used to be the biggest employer around. the south wales valleys were very much based around a mining and production industry, but as time passed, especially after austerity came into effect, some regions set record unemployment rates across the whole of the UK. the county ebbw vale’s in, blaenau gwent, consists of about 600,000 adults; and within the county, each month, nearly 300,000 prescriptions for antidepressants are filled.

amidst all of this, monwel originated as a government-funded, council-run, signs & services manufacturing firm back in the 60s, with its main goals being to provide employment for those with barriers: people on long unemployment stretches and a lack of confidence in their skills, people with disabilities, people on work programmes from the prison. it’s continued this work till now, with 82% of their current workforce managing some form of disability. two years ago, though, they began the transition to becoming an independent social enterprise.

and so here i am! just in time, as they’re on the cusp of re-branding themselves. the core values and goals are the same as they’ve ever been: to connect small, locally-owned, independent businesses to one another, to provide skills and experience and opportunities for disenfranchised youth, to employ people with disabilities in meaningful and skilled trades work.

but right now, it’s crucial that the company grows, becomes entirely self-sustainable, and continues to be a valuable part of the community it serves.

so here are some of the things i’m probably being overly ambitious about learning/doing this summer:

• What makes a successful transition from a not-for-profit/council-funded organization to a social enterprise, perhaps with a focus on marketing, re-branding, and product line expansion? Can I develop a model that I can take back to Toronto, for groups like Queer Asian Youth at the Asian Community for AIDS Services, which didn’t get its funding from Toronto Public Health renewed for this year?

• In what ways do partnerships with the private sector (specifically, local small businesses that need support too) benefit the social enterprise and the small business and the greater community? How do specific government policies play into this? Is this unique to the Welsh political landscape, or could it also be applicable in the communities I work in?

• Do we see any benefits from representation at Monwel, and what are the metrics of success for a social enterprise? Is this something any entities at Ryerson University would be interested in funding me for?? :'(

i’m afraid of the word count for this post so i’m just not going to look. anyway. there are, as always, 13059721 more things i want to talk about, but i’ll end it here for now. this concludes my first blog post about my first week! it was delayed, but super worth the wait, and i can’t wait to e x t e n s i v e l y document the following weeks.

#jenchan #SSIMexchange